Gazing Game
by too enigmatic 2 b urs
Summary: AU. Sam pondered about her feelings for Danny. A different kind of Danny Fenton. A popularly handsome jerk with a mystery that surrounds him. Written on impulse. DXS
1. Chapter 1

_**Hi, I'm back in the writing zone again. I'm still on the verge of resurrecting my life on so sue me for the abscence and lack of updates. Anyway, here's another oneshot written on an impulse. I don't really know where this is going so any kind of reviews are accepted.**_

_**This is an AU. Danny and Sam were opposites on this fic. **_

_**I owned nothing but the plot bunny.**_

_**---DP**_

He was comfortably sitting on the middle of the room. Along with his air-pumped-up-brain pals. He looked like he was having a despisingly nasty great conversation with them. She could tell by that disgustingly plaster of look on their true-knowledge deprived faces. He whispered slyly to them, cupping both of his hands to his mouth with his eyes glistening with an unkown pervertedness. His meathead pals leaned in hard to hear it, their faces almost touching. Then they all let out the most annoying and intriguing guffaw.

She clenched her teeth in veiled anger and pure annoyance._ Why do people choose to gossip about the malignant things around them than to simply just ignore it? _Pathetic. She never understand why the hell guys loved to waste their time fonding off on anatomical parts that were supposed to be personal. But she liked him anyway. But _He_ was _one_ of them and she couldn't get him out of her own thick skull. He was a guy's guy. An asshole in every perspective you try to look at. But why? Why couldn't she stop herself from gazing intently at him? Why couldn't she prevent herself from stealing simple glances every now and then?

She sighed as she shut her purple eyes, as if attempting to shove away all those unwanted thoughts and insane habits. This was getting more and more sick every damned second she spared him a glance. She reopened her eyes and focused on him again. Great. So now, eyes opened or not she'd be seeing him. And imagining --

Damn. Life really was in the mood to freeze her mind at the most possible chilling temperature then dip it in some one hundred degree celsius boiling water. _Life is ironic._ She remembered the infamous quote. Very ironic indeed.

His addicting ice cold blue eyes were there. Staring intently at hers.** This **couldn't be happening again. The bizarre staring session couldn't be occuring again. ---Although it was.

It was sort of a game they both played. Though none of them actaully planned it. It was just kind of a usual caught of the eye moment that turned into a habit, **worse **a _contest. _She would gaze at him then he would catch her doing it so he would stare at her also. Then they would just stood there locking eyes on each other without any emotion on their faces. They had done it more than five times these past few months. And they were still continuing to do it. And it just happened to take place again. Right now.

Ice blue connecting straight to amethyst. She tried to penetrate through his dense icy exterior. Yet she failed. She always did. She just wondered if he could--to her. But she know he could. She could feel it, his laser-like eyes seeing through her carefully woven shield,completely and effortlessly.

Damn. She hated it. How could he do that to her? To simply stare at her and suddely jumble her insides. It was like all papers were flying through the air and alternating themselves so that it would be a total chaos of information--of **feelings**.

Okay, so the gazing game had somehow created a new and longer record. This was getting really awkward and irritating. Why wouldn't he just stop looking at her like she was the most interesting ugly artwork. But then again, why couldn't she just stop and avert her gaze? After all, she was the one who started it. Wasn't she the one supposed to end it?

She fidgeted. His gaze was invisibly enveloping her. Consuming every fiber in her body. A chill ran down her spine. _Got to end this._

She quickly looked away. Pretending to be amused by the floor all of a sudden.

In a blink of an eye, the heat that was surrounding her vanished into the thin air. Gone. And she found herself able to breath again. She was relieved and disappointed at the same time. Hollowed air seemed to fill her stomach and her heart sank all the way down to the Marianas trench..

She gulped, exercising a little mantra._It was nothing. It didin't matter. He didn't matter. _She closed her eyes again, longer this time. He didn't matter. None of the things that concern him matter. He didn't care about her so why would she,right? Right. And with that she wished she could believe her own words.

_**---Thank you so much for reading. Feel free to write reviews.**_

_Too enigmatic 2 b urs, formerly known as loner_gurl / phantom-angel_


	2. Bewildered and Bewildering

_**A huge and warm thank you to all of you guys. Uhm, this is just an attempt. Yeah, I know, I'm now making this a multi chappie but I'm still worried about how it will turn out. So, let this be a future public apology for the future errors. **_

_**Again, thank you. And I present to you the second chapter of Gazing Game. And before anything else, I DON"T OWN DP.**_

_**DP---Chapter 2: The **__**Bewildered and the Bewildering---**_

Another school day ended. Another day from Sam Manson's dull and non-sense life wasted, just like yesterday. Just like the other days.

Sigh. What was to expect from a teenage girl whose life was more messed up than a country devastated by consecutive typhoons?

The answer? Nothing.

So here she was rummaging through the old pages of her diary. Also known as bathing-yourself-with-not-forgotten-painfully-humiliating memories. Yeah, so much for relaxing after school and trying to clear your mind out.

Speaking of clearing, she should be spending her entire after-school time burrying her nose onto her homeworks. But instead of doing that, she managed to let her thoughts drift off-again. It was very ironic that she could remember complete names and places without even blinking yet she couldn't force herself to stop the contrary. She couldn't seem to forget the fact that she had again engaged herself in another conflicting situation with him. Yes , him.

The guy in her class who loves to smoke, loves to annoy the heck out of people, loves to play with their emotions and had that irritating knack for disappearing acts. That guy who had silk raven black hair, bewitching and ever-changing blue eyes and fine, _kissable_ lips. WAIT, Did she just think that? Kissable? Where did it came from? Since when she started thinking about lips, guy's lips? Oh God, this was really getting more and more tangled than she imagined. She didn't really need this. She never wanted this. She was Sam. A pure and raw Goth. All black, no care. That _was_ her, before.

Before this Danny Fenton guy showed up in her school and began spreading his _virus._Before inflicting each and every person he met. Before she discovered that under those entire asshole-ness was a guy with big blob brains. Not just oh-he's-got-brains but the kind of Wow-man brains! She would thought of him as the cockiest jerk ever to take a step unto her life but then he would flip away that personality and would instantly put up the intelligent persona. Like a snake in a moulting season, only faster.

That was him. Daniel. Talk about biblical name. And how life was a paradox itself. Another long sigh.

Where was she again? Oh, right, the supposed to be spending your afternoon working with books though failing and ending up in thinking about the guy who never seemed to give a damn to anything. _And you call yourself a Goth, tough, unaffected._ What a true Goth you are. Really.

_**DP-----**_

"Hey dude, what'cha thinkin?" Pondered outloud by a male voice followed by a friendly pat on the back.

A pair of mystique and confused blue eyes raised up to look at the voice, Tucker Foley's voice.

It blinked once, twice. As if attempting to shove away all those unwanted thoughts.

He emitted a large audible sigh. "Nothing." He replied, hoping it would sound non-chalantly.

"Really ,huh" Tucker breathed amused, almost.

"Yah." A pause and a tired yawn. "I'm bored, let's hit some _sessions_ here."

"Uh, I'll pass on that one." Tucker replied hesitantly.

Tucker's unusual tone made Danny's ears perked up.

"Are you kidding me?"

His best friend's eyes raced left to right as he looked downright nervous. What could he be so nervous about?

Danny's black brows came together as he looked hard on Tucker's face. He was practically hiding something from him.

"Are you ok?"

"Yeah..." Tucker trailed off facing the other direction.

"What's wrong?"

Tucker shrugged in return and turned to look him in the eye. Danny saw part sadness, part confusion and part regret. Something wasn't right.

Tucker swallowed as much air as he could. "I- it's nothing." He hesitated.

Danny crossed his arms over his chest and drummed his finger impatiently on his growing biceps.

"I think..."

Danny shot him daggers with his eyes.

"I think- I Li- . . . "He paused. "I think ILikeValerie." Tucker finally spat out as he found his gaze on the ground.

Danny emitted a dry laugh, he almost perfected the hyena's. "You _like_ Valerie?"

His best friend looked as red as a tomato. "It's not funny!"

"Yeah, alright." Danny rapidly switched back to his unusual serious self.

"So, ask her out." The suggestion was so simple and shallow, a stray dog could remember it but it hit Tucker like a scorching volcanic eruption. He was quite taken aback.

He huffed angrily as he rolled his sea green eyes heavenward. "Dude, are you nuts?"

"What?" Came the most brilliant answer from Danny Fenton.

Tucker felt the sudden urge to give him a friendly punch. This wasn't the time for jokes and Danny was a smart guy. He could solve complex algorithms in one snap of a finger. He could reason his way out of his own mischiefs. He could easily fabricated a little lie to cover up his vanishing acts. He was simply an intelligent and senseful person beyond those bad boy attitudes. And Tucker knew that Danny knew exactly the answer to his _what_.

"Are _you_ nuts?" Danny kicked his question back at him. And Tucker just stared at him in complete disbelief.

"Seriously Tuck, you said you like Valerie,so I said go and ask her out. What do you think was the _nutty_ part there?"

"Sam." Tucker mumbled.

"Sam." Danny echoed. "When did that come from? I thought you like Valerie." He asked staging an innocent oblivious side.

Tucker gritted his teeth in return. He was starting to run out with patience for Danny. "Sam is Valerie's best friend. Valerie's, like, the smartest, not to mention hottest girl in class. And Sam here is the total opposite of Valerie. She maybe smart, too but she's you know, sort of a . . . freak."

Danny scratched his head,managing to disorganize his already messed up hair. Then he gazed at Tuck incredulously.

He held a finger in front of Tucker. "First of all, I don't think Sam is your problem. She's just some non-significant creature who doesn't give a damn to anyone. Second, Valerie **is** the main subject. **You** like **her**. So. why don't you just casually bump onto her and ask her out?" He took a pause as for a dramatic effect."Then if she said no, I would just overshadow her and make her say yes." He finished as if he just scored a three-point shot.

Tucker blinked double time as Danny's words sank in. "Wait, _ overshadow? __**Her?**_" He stopped short. **"No way!**"

"Just kidding."

"Yeah, right."

Tucker got up and turned to leave. However, something in Danny's tone made him take a halt.

"All I'm saying is, She's available, pretty, smart... you name it."

Tucker didn't choose to face him again. But he still continued.

"I don't see any problem with her. I mean, you like her. She probably likes you back." Danny paused as his tone became deeper and more mysterious. "And as for _her_. . . "

Tucker didn't need any definition of _her_. Danny didn't usually name the girls they talked about because they were all and the same, but if there was one girl Danny would ever unname, that would be _her_. Sam Manson. Creepy bizarre Goth girl this side of Amity Park.

"_She_ won't do anything 'bout it. Trust me. She doesn't matter."

Watching Danny's expression wasn't necessary. Tucker could clearly see it through his closed eyes, Danny staring at the invisible thin air with that inexplicable shine in his soft-then-hard blue eyes. Pondering on who-knows, whatever there was to be so bothered about. He was like that since that day. Since the day he'd started locking eyes with that odd silent girl.

Danny would never tell him exactly what was going on with his mind. He always did with his ghost huntings, his enemies, his folks, his annoying sister but never about _her._ Tucker emanated an inward sigh then disappeared from Danny's room.

Silence hugged the four-cornered room. Then Danny whispered to himself, "Why?"

**----...DP---**

_**Thanks for reading. Reviews are highly appreciated.**_


	3. The Unexpected

Please tell me what you think.

**I don't own DP.**

_**DP---Chapter 3: The Unexpected**_

Sam finally got so fed up with bitter flashbacks that she automatically went to Nasty Burger to grab some snacks. She was thinking of calling up Val, her best friend, to have some company but she realized that spilling her annoying dreaded thoughts to her wouldn't really do any good. Especially, when she wasn't even considering the matter as being an important one.

She breathed inaudibly as she chewed the top portion of her straw. Watching all sorts of people coming in and out of Nasty Burger's seemed to be the best distraction. There weren't that many seeing as it wasn't a weekend. She glanced at its patrons, some sipping down their sodas, eating mighty meaty burgers, talking to their friends, some were even doing both--eating and talking. Disgusting.

At the far corner there was a young couple seating across each other,dating. They both looked in the same age as she was. The boy had a brown hair with hazel eyes and was gazing intently at his date. He was grinning at her with a flash of unknown knowledge in his eyes. Sam turned to glance at the girl. She had that movie-star blonde, shinning long hair, she had her hands down on her lap. Sam's purple eyes trailed down as she looked at her, wearing a pink floral spring dress. . . the girl's got slender, bare legs and . . . hands. Sam quickly recognized the scene. Guy groping his hands to his pretty date's legs. The girl, whoever she was, wasn't even flinching! More disgusting. Ick.

Sam refused to look at them. Why in the world she decided to be in here anyway? Her humble room was the safest place for her yet she stupidly got the idea of going out to_ free_ her mind. For the hope of relaxing and letting the time pass unconsciously. What a waste. She felt the longing feeling of walking so she stood up, cup of drink still in hand then turned to leave. Or so she thought.

The next thing she knew, her drink was artistically blotched on someone's white shirt and its left over was dripping from her hand. She heard a guy cursed under his breath. Great, so she accidentally bumped onto a guy and spilled her drink to him. That would be a great distraction and it would absolutely take her mind off of Danny. She mumbled an apology as she looked up, surprised to be met with the most beautiful mesmerizing sky blue eyes she had only seen in Danny. Damn it! It was him. It was Danny. He was right there hovering above her with brows knitted together as if he'd heard her attempting to shut him off from her mind.

"Uh. . .I-I'm s-sorry." She fumbled with her words. Damn. Why did that always happen when he was around?

"Yeah, you said that already." He replied with a lazy and annoyed look.

"I'm really sorry." She said again, her gaze fixated on the liquid now creeping on the floor.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

Okay. . . now what? She didn't make a move. She didn't know what to do. Did she need to get some tissue to wipe his shirt or offer to do the laundry? _What_ in the world should she do?

A few awkward years went by and she heard Danny finally spoke. Too bad she didn't understand it.

"Huh?" Her voice was that of the newly awakened drunk girl.

"You're. . .blocking. . . my. . .way. . " He repeated as if talking to a mentally ill person.

Sam tilted her head side to side. Her eyes scanned the area as if watching a poor quality blockbuster. Look at that, she was standing between two tables. Right on the aisle. Yeah, she did a successfully great job on obstructing Mr. Badboy's majestical path. What a_ perfect day_.

"Sorry." She whispered for the umpteenth time.

Danny exasperated heavily, arched an eyebrow, clicked his tongue and crossed his arms over his chest. The basic irritated movements of a cocky asshole. "If I'd _kiss_ you, would you get off my way?"

_Whoa._ _Did he really just say that? _She gaped at him, her eyes filled with confusion and sudden inexplicable irritation,maybe even anger. She felt like smacking the guy right on his damned face. He was truly a disrespecting he would always be like that. She absently took a step back, opened her mouth to retort-

"Thanks" He mumbled as he wasted no time brushing past her then strutting away.

Sam could almost feel him smirking behind her back. Her fist clenched, accidentally crumpling the empty plastic cup. It gave a small, crackling sound. Then she stomped toward the glass doors, tossed the cup to a nearby trash can and slid out of the place as casual as she could. Apparently, touring around Amity Park was really hard when several Danny-disturbed thoughts occupy your mind.

**....-----.....**

**T**here was something Sam liked about Fridays. It was an obvious reason she made up since she was little. Every four-year old kid could think of it. The only good thing about Fridays? It weren't like Thursdays. Thursdays were more of a drought, Fridays were more of a sucking-week ender. Which meant that you didn't have to worry about waking up early the next day and doing the same damn thing all over again.

**But **since she got up from her bed today, she felt something was going to happen. And that something didn't actually appeal to her.

Sam hated surprises and instincts. For her, they were just one and the same. Both were only going to end up in a sure disaster. And it would certainly just left her the butt of jokes. However that didn't bother her. She could ignore them without even noticing she was doing it. It was the disappointment that she didn't want to bear.

And today, it looked like that she was going to get a humongous disappointment. Way larger than the Giza pyramid. . . Because today was the day the creatures who control fate gather up in a classified conference just to play with her jumbled emotions. And they hired Mr. Lancer to do it for them. Well, more like manipulated him to get to her.

What was her first clue? Let's see, aside from getting the unfortunate encounter with Mr. pain-in-her-head yesterday and leaving him all soaked up (her stupid fault). She was now sandwich-ed in an uber complicated and darn awkward situation between prioritizing her grades and keeping her unlabeled emotions intact.

Very untimely, Mr. Lancer gave them 'his ultra special project' and that was to conduct a real interview. As in the face-to-face talk with some older, well-experienced person sort of interview. The thing Sam dreaded the most-- talking to other human beings. It wasn't that she was afraid of them, it was for the fact that she was a Goth. And being a Goth, to adults seemed like having the A(H1-N1) virus. Just a little worse. They looked at you as if you were a freak to the _good o'l nice_ society. As if you were going to kidnap their kids suddenly and brainwash them to be your little toy soldiers. It was more than annoying, it was really, really insulting.

But uh-uh, that wasn't the reason Sam learned to hate this day. Sure, the interview thingy had sucked but what ruined her entire day was the other fact that they would do the interview in buddies. Not an individual activity nor a grouped one, but a partnered one. And guess who was her assigned partner? None other than that obnoxious, annoying person she despised and liked at the same time. Danny Fenton.

Liked it or not, she'd be spending her supposed-to-be-alone time with a guy she didn't even want to know and **if **he** ever **tried to ditch this thing, she'd probably be left mourning over her low grades. So, she desperately needed to approach him and talk to him and spend some time with him and-**stop**. Not again, she wouldn't let her imagination run wild again. After that humiliating event yesterday, she didn't know if she could still come up to him, but hey, she just have to talk to him when actually needed. Right? But how would she do that if she couldn't even get herself to spare him a glance?

Suddenly, her thoughts were sliced into pieces as she heard someone calling her name. She looked up and then wished she hadn't. There he was, standing in front of her seat. Actually, he was hovering above her and she felt the urge of deja vu.

"What are we gonna do?" Not much interest there.

"We?" Okay, she hadn't meant that to sound that dumb but she was too perplexed to analyze things.

"Yeah, _we."_ He stressed the word _we_, bouncing his finger back and forth between him and her. "We're _partners _remember?"

Another obvious point from Mr. Danny Fenton, ladies and gentlemen. Sam sighed inwardly. Cockiness, one thing he could never afford to lose.

"Yeah, _I know_ we are. But I haven't been informed about our interviewee." Yeah, fine, that was smooth, no fumbling with words, no idiotic questions. Sam knew she could make through it. She just hoped.

Danny held out a stapled set of papers that resembled those of criminal profiles and read it aloud to her. "According to _this_, **we** _shall_ conduct an interview to a married couple with three kids." He took a really bad dramatic pause. "And, from the the way it's written on here, it looks like **we'**re going to ask so many freaking questions about family!" He finished with another abrassively dramatic thud on her desk.

He just threw the mechanics in front of her. Obviously showing he wasn't interested about it. But there was a thing that caught Sam's ear. There was a slight change of tone when the word _family _ left his mouth. Something Sam couldn't quite put her finger on. She rolled her eyes in self-annoyance. Apparently, she'd be forcing herself not to flinch everytime she'd hear the words **we,us and our**. And she'd be expected to use those pronouns too. That was definitely great!

"I'll just be hanging around Amity. Don't forget to keep in touch." He said as he turned away.

"Yeah." Sam answered yet Danny was already out of her sight. _Well, that went fine enough_.

_**...----...**_

"What do you mean you're not planning to do that project?!" Valerie Gray bellowed at her best friend. Managing to fetch the attention of most of the kids flooding the whole cafeteria. She quickly shut her mouth and shot them daggers with her eyes.

Lunch time came and Sam had just told her that she wasn't anywhere going to do that Lancer-related thingy with _that guy_.

"I told you, Val. There's no freaking way I'm going to interview a married couple with _him._" Sam hissed under her breath, completely aware of the people giving them odd looks. She stabbed her plastic fork to her salad so hard she thought she heard the plate cracked under.

"Alright," Valerie sighed. "Tell me what's so hard about this. Is it the project,the schedule or the partner, _your partner_?" Sam swore she saw a glint in her only friend's eyes and she didn't make any effort to hide her instant irritation.

She swallowed a few gallons of air to force herself to calm down. "It's the project, of course-"

"Yeah, right."

Sam shot her a menacing glare.

Valerie emitted a grunt and crossed her arms over her chest. Signaling Sam to go on.

"Thank you." Sam breathed impatiently. She took another breath before she started again. "I'ts the project that I'm having problems with." She received a twicthing eye from her friend, a silent disagreement. She continued. "Look at these questions," She passed a blue folder across the table. Her browned hair friend caught it without even blinking and opened it. Her eyes darting back and forth as she read the contents.

**1. How long have you been married?**

Well, that was the classic question. Valerie shrugged then decided to speed through the other queries that appeared usual for her. She jumped to the climatic ones that Sam pointed out with her shimmering, onyx black fingernail.

**7. How do you keep your relationship with your adolescent kids without being overprotective?**

So, that one was a good question. What the heck was freaking out her best friend Sam?

"I don't see any problems with these." Valerie shrugged as she closed the blue folder and laid it back on the table. "They're all. . ." She searched her mind for the right term. " .. . family-oriented."

"_That is _ the problem." Pointed Sam with her finger. She inhaled deeply through her nose. "Family, is the thing I never talk about."

Her best friend surrendered a sigh. "Yeah, I know." She took a pause, waiting for herself to blurt out the thing that was circling around her thoughts. "Family and relationship, two words you least use in a sentence."

"More like a paragraph." Sam corrected. They both knew that the Mansons were a huge blur when it comes to that matter. Sam's mom was the sun and Sam was the wolf. Not only her mom was the brightest star in the solar system but she was also the star, the antagonist of Sam's life. And she was the wolf who only let itself free at night, when it was sure the sun was gone. Scrath that, she wasn't a wolf. Wolf was a family-oriented animal, it hunt in groups. She was a. . .fox. A fox was a loner. Yeah, that's more likely Sam.

"Yeah." Her best friend agreed. "But _that_ has nothing to do with _your_ guy." She smirked triumphantly as if she just received the best actress award.

Sam huffed in utter disbelief. "My what?"

"Your guy." Valerie answered, her eyes conveying sweet innocence but her tone implying a different, other then chewed and swallowed watching her best friend's face turn into a beautiful scowl.

Sam shot her a another dangerous glare then started eating her food. She averted her gaze from Valerie and ignored her completely. She gripped her plastic fork a little too hard. Maybe this was not the best time to look for some consolation, not when her best friend was acting like a bi-

"Sam."

Her thoughts were shattered by the voice. The voice she never expected to say her name. The voice she definitely didn't want to hear right now.

"Sam."

As bad as she wanted to ignore it, she couldn't. She just had to bear the speaking terms for her damn grades' sake. She stopped eating and turned to look up. _What the heck do you want with me now?_ She wanted to scream out loud. But instead of doing that, she just stared at the person calling her name and waited for the reason, his reason.

"Can I talk to you for a sec?"

_Damn._

_**....---DP**_

**I'm so sorry it took me so long to update. Please forgive me. **_**Please?**_


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